Alabama
Here’s the case against Alabama football getting a College Football Playoff spot
Alabama football’s path the College Football Playoff is out of its control.
The Crimson Tide has its ranking heading into the final bracket, sitting at No. 11 and likely in the driver’s seat for a playoff berth before the top 12 teams are officially announced Sunday
Alabama seems to be right in the mix for a CFP spot even with three losses. But should the Crimson Tide even be considered?
Alabama football CFP predictions
No matter if the Crimson Tide should be considered or not, Alabama remains a favorite to make the final 12.
In the penultimate CFP rankings before the final bracket is revealed Sunday, Alabama landed at No. 11. In this set of rankings, Alabama would be an 11-seed playing No. 6 Notre Dame for a quarterfinal date with SMU.
Alabama, a three-loss team, finished ahead of two-loss Miami and three-loss SEC teams South Carolina and Ole Miss. According to the CFP selection committee chair Warde Manuel, since none of those teams will play in a conference championship game, that order is “set.”
Before Tuesday’s CFP rankings, multiple outlets including ESPN, Sporting News and 247Sports had the Crimson Tide in the CFP as either a No. 12 or No. 11 seed facing teams like Penn State or Notre Dame.
Why Alabama football won’t make College Football Playoff
There is a chance the Crimson Tide miss the playoff entirely.
No. 8 SMU faces No. 17 Clemson Saturday for an ACC championship. If the three-loss Tigers beat the Mustangs and earn an automatic bid, Alabama could be pushed out in favor of two-loss SMU, which would have its second loss in a conference championship game.
The same could be said, albeit less likely, with the Mountain West championship game between No. 10 Boise State and No. 20 UNLV.
But even if Clemson or UNLV wins, Alabama, in the eyes of the committee, still has a fighter’s chance at a top-12 bid.
Here’s why the Crimson Tide shouldn’t.
Alabama lost to a six-win Vanderbilt team in a game it which it never held a lead. And after a road loss to Tennessee, the Crimson Tide had an abysmal performance against six-win Oklahoma, an outing considered among the worst offensive performances by an Alabama team in 20 years.
Three losses by 33 total points.
Yes, Alabama beat South Carolina head-to-head. But two of the Gamecocks’ three losses came by five total points while all three losses came by 29 total points. And South Carolina beat Oklahoma by 26.
Ole Miss beat Oklahoma by 12 and lost its three games to Kentucky, LSU and Florida by 13 combined points. The Rebels also beat Georgia and South Carolina.
The there’s two-loss Miami, with losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse by nine total points.
Strength of schedule may win out for Alabama. But when the Crimson Tide fell short, it fell short significantly, something other CFP hopefuls didn’t do.
When do CFP rankings come out?
The final CFP rankings will be released at 11 a.m. CT on Sunday after the weekend’s slate of conference championship games.
How to watch CFP bracket reveal
- TV channel: ESPN
- Stream: Fubo
The CFP bracket will be revealed between 11 a.m.-3 p.m. CT on ESPN.
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Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Adrian Klemm, meet the challenge of a career.
Alabama football’s first-year offensive line coach is one of three new faces at Kalen DeBoer’s conference table. And, next year, history says there might be three more. At the major college level, heavy turnover among assistant coaches is business as usual. But make no mistake; Klemm was DeBoer’s most important hire of the offseason. He might well be the most important hire DeBoer has made in his 26 months on the job.
That’s the magnitude of the mess that Alabama’s 2025 offensive line left behind.
The Crimson Tide’s 2025 rushing attack was an insult to the word attack. It was more like a rushing surrender; ranked 123rd out of 134 FBS teams, and 15th of 16 SEC teams, at 104.1 yards per game. Rock bottom came in the SEC Championship Game, when Georgia sent it backward for minus-3 yards. It’s frankly remarkable that quarterback Ty Simpson assembled a 28-5 TD-INT ratio, as a first-year starter no less, with virtually zero help from a ground game. And while we’re on the subject of the passing game, Simpson wasn’t very well-protected, either. At 2.13 sacks allowed per game, UA ranked 90th in the country.
If Klemm even bothered to watch film of last year’s offensive line, he had to do it with one eye closed.
UA tried all sorts of combinations up front, looking for a solution to what was plainly its biggest problem. In 45 years paying attention to college football, I never saw so many substitutions on an offensive line as Alabama made in 2025. Backups got every chance that could have asked for. On one hand, it was understandable that now-fired offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic refused to stay with a failing five all season.
But it also smacked of desperation.
In the end, it was clear that no combination was effective; the first-team unit Kapilovic finally settled on late in the season was the one that got manhandled by Georgia in Atlanta.
It was a shock to the system for Alabama fans, who know what a dominant run game looks like whether they’re young or old. Jam Miller led Alabama with 504 rushing yards on the season; former UA star Derrick Henry once ran for 557 in a three-game stretch against Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State.
Miller, of course, is no Henry. But the gap between those two is no bigger than the gap between Henry’s 2015 offensive line and the disastrous line that took the field a decade later.
Klemm is tasked with turning that mess around in a single offseason, with only one returning part-time starter in sophomore Michael Carroll, a promising cornerstone to be sure. But an offensive line is only as strong as its weakest link, and Klemm must find four links to line up beside Carroll. A collection of returning backups, transfers and incoming freshmen have a lot of improvements to make, along with a strong impression on a new position coach.
With spring practice underway, that process has begun in earnest.
And Klemm faces a taller task than any assistant on the practice field.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
The mother of an Enterprise toddler, reported missing Feb. 16, has been charged with capital murder, said Police Chief Michael Moore.
Adrienne Reid, mother of Genesis Nova Reid, reported her daughter as missing to authorities and said the two-year-old was not in the home and the door was open. On March 9, she was charged with capital murder of a child under the age of 14 and abuse of a corpse, Moore said. March 9 would have been Genesis’ birthday, he said. Adrienne Reid had previously been charged with filing a false report about her daughter’s disappearance.
She is being held without bond, Moore said. Adrienne Reid could not be reached for comment and court records do not show if she has an attorney.
The case shocked Enterprise and southeast Alabama. Hundreds of volunteers searched for her, and people were asked to wear pink to honor her.
Early on in the investigation neighbors told law enforcement that they hadn’t seen the child for several weeks.
Moore said evidence points to the capital murder charge even though Genesis’ body has not been found. The last time she was seen was Christmas night while visiting family in Dothan, Moore said. Video footage at the apartment complex where they lived showed Adrienne Reid about 11:30 p.m. Christmas night pulling a rolling duffle bag to a dumpster at the complex, and throwing the duffle bag inside, he said.
Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd said his office began the process of planning to search the landfill early in the investigation. The landfill covers 100 acres. He said the area where the contents of the dumpster that allegedly contained Genesis’ body was likely dumped has been narrowed down to an area covering a few hundred feet.
Active searches will begin soon, he said. District Attorney James Tarbox said the state will be seeking the death penalty.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com. To support his work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
BREWTON, Ala. — A 46-year-old woman is charged with the murder of a 27-year-old woman in Brewton, Alabama.
Deputies arrested Renotta Seltzer on Friday. She was booked into the Escambia County Jail in Alabama around 4:15 p.m. She’s being held without bond.
The shooting happened Friday on McGougin Road.
The victim is 27-year-old Anna Brown.
Sheriff Heath Jackson tells WEAR News that the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
The sheriff’s office is expected to release more details on Monday.
Stick with WEAR News on-air and online for more updates on this story.
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